Halifax’s Trans Liberation League is teaming up with the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group to put on an information session this evening to discuss the state of healthcare for transgender people in Nova Scotia. TLL has created TRANS*form Healthcare, a project that looks at ways to change the current health services available to people in the trans community.

Down East spoke with Jacqueline Vincent, a member of the group, about tonight’s meeting.

How did TLL come to be?

The Trans Liberation League was formed specifically for the TRANS*form Healthcare campaign. A group of us decided that we wanted to fight for necessary healthcare services for trans people. We are an ad hoc committee and plan on coming together to organize for specific needs.

What is its mandate?

To try to make Nova Scotia a better place for trans people to live in. Right now we are specifically focusing on trans-related healthcare. Our specific vision and demands are outlined in our pamphlet [attached].

How does it hope to achieve these goals?

We are using a combination of public education, through events like info sessions and panel discussions; awareness-raising, through fun events like dance parties; government lobbying; and grassroots action. We plan to travel to communities across Nova Scotia to build provincewide support. We are building relationships with local communities and working in partnership with other organizations such as NSPIRG (Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group).

For more information, check out the FB page for the event.

Kim Ann Foxman is, like her name, foxy.

Sly and sexy, wily and smart, Foxman's musical endeavours have led to a strong and devoted fanbase. Most discovered her through her work with Hercules and Love Affair on such tracks as "Athene" and "I Can't Wait." Foxman continued to collaborate with H&LA's Andy Butler on a single from Mr Intl (Butler's label) entitled "Creature," which paid both aesthetic and sonic homage to the clubs and kids of late-'80s/early-'90s NYC. Foxman has also collaborated with Kink & Neville Watson and Layo & Bushwacka, as well as working hard as a DJ spinning records for various clubs and doing promo material for magazines. 

Foxman has just put out a new video for her latest release, entitled "Return It." According to Fact mag, Foxman says the song is "about the mutual love and respect that should be there in any relationship whether it may be with a friend or lover. The video is about the beauty of love, trust, & friendship – it’s a romantic, honest, & faithful statement for the song."

Check it out.

 

Nick Offerman, best known as the meat-loving and bacon-obsessed Ron Swanson from Parks And Recreation, has teamed up with New York Collaborates for Autism in a genius fashion. Swanson is offering his time and his body, for money. That's right: if you want to see Offerman strip down to his birthday suit, from "nips to nuggets," you can make a donation to NYCA, and not only can you contribute to what many would argue is a great organization, but you could also help the internet become the place it was meant to be: a sea of naked images of Nick Offerman.

That way, when you look up images of Offerman online, you can find more than just this:

Image via GQ

But you could see what that eagle is hiding. All in favour, say "Aye!"

Aye!

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And as it's Friday, that means it's time for your weekly Office Dance Party. I've been digging around lately looking for records that were made for voguing, walking and whacking. Junior Vasquez, he of the "If Madonna Calls, I"m Not Here" fame, created a fiercely tribal homage to the House of Xtravaganza with his record "X."

Now you can strike a pose and duck walk in your office as you wait for the weekend to start.

This morning, CBC's Nova Scotia website reported about a recent upswing in cases of syphilis.

The article states that 47 men in the HRM have tested positive this year, up from 35 last year. The story also discusses how many of the men who tested positive often met other men online. Holly D'Angelo-Scott, a senior epidemiologist at Capital Health told the CBC that "when we look to see the connections between cases, a lot of our cases are meeting their sexual partners through the internet. That's probably a common link between some of the cases."

It's a tricky business to talk about sexual health to the masses, especially when you're hoping to reach certain demographics -- in this case, men who have sex with men. It can be tricky with men who have sex with men (MSM) because you're dealing with a population that doesn't always want to be identified, or even identifies with that moniker.

Let's say you're a straight-identified, married man named X. To X, sex is what he does with his wife/girlfriend/et cetera. He loves her and enjoys having sex with her. Sex involves very specific forms of physical intimacy with that one person. But X also happens to occasionally meet certain men to do certain things. It could be in public places, it could be online, it could be in a bathhouse. For X, what happens in those locations and in those times may not be viewed as sex, because it isn't the same forms of physical intimacy that he engages with his wife/girlfriend/et cetera. So when a local news source posts a story about a recent upswing in STI rates amongst MSM, it doesn't faze him, because it doesn't affect him. He doesn't think what he's doing is having sex with men.

So how do you reach X? How do you reach a population that doesn't want to be identified or outed?

At this stage in the game, the best way to do this is to use broad strokes when talking to the public.

The CBC story never uses any terminology that denotes sexual orientation in its description of the men. It does, however, indicate that "all the 115 confirmed syphilis cases since that time have been men" and includes a quote from a Capital Health staffer: "It is possible that there will be a progression from this population of men who have sex with men to women." Here, they are talking about X. They are talking to X. And hopefully X will get the message.

This is not to say that X is emblematic of every MSM who doesn't want to be identified. X may be closeted. X may have myriad reasons for not wanting to be counted amongst MSM. Those reasons are X's alone. But X is amongst the population of MSM. 

I am amongst that population. And I have many friends, as well as current and former lovers, who are as well.

It doesn't matter what the STI is or how and when a person may or may not contract it. What matters is getting the information out there without a heavy-handed message or propagandist polemic. And I take it as my personal responsibility to share that information with as many people as possible. With friends, colleagues, internet followers and more. Because it's an important story. It's a story about your -- and everyone's -- health.

 

 

 

So last week was National Coming Out Day. 

And then Ann Coulter had to ruin it.

Sigh.

Apparently Ms Coulter thought she was being funny.

Now, I am not a humourless individual. I think lots of things are funny. In fact, I think Coulter is downright hilarious. Have you listened to what she has to say? This is a woman who recently argued that racism in the US was stopped dead in its tracks in 1964. No, that's not a joke. That's what she said on Bill Maher, using her own brand of semantics.

Maybe she wrote that tweet for her friends at the gay republican group GOProud, who called her a gay icon. Now that's so funny, it's downright ridiculous. 

Well, GLAAD didn't think any of this was funny. On their website, they responded to the tweet by saying:

I have no doubt that last week, more than a few American households experienced the tragedy that Ann joked about. Approximately 50% of LGBT youth experience some degree of family rejection. There are as many as 100 thousand homeless LGBT youth on our nation's streets, and it's estimated that LGBT youth make up as much as 40% of our nation's homeless youth population. LGBT youth who are completely rejected by their parents are more than 8 times as likely to have attempted suicide. Pretty funny, right?

Indeed. It's a riot.

 

There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

Image by Randall Perry

According to Global Maritimes, Raymond Taavel will receive the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal posthumously. His partner, Darren Lewis, said that he knew Taavel had been nominated but was moved by the news. "[His family] were the first people I spoke with, and of course they're just ecstatic. They can't believe their little Raymond from Sault Ste Marie is going to be honoured in such a way," he is reported to have said.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal was created to "honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians." Taavel was well known in Halifax for his work as a gay activist, as well as his work with Halifax Pride. Taavel was attacked in the early hours of April 17 on Gottingen Street and died as a result. Andre Noel Denny has been charged with second-degree. Denny was a patient at the East Coast Forensic Hospital, where he was out on a day pass.  His trial has been put on hold until the court receives a psychological assessment, which is due to be released Nov 26. 

 

 

The first person I told that I was gay was my best friend Tim.

He knew. Tim was gay too.

I was a pretty obviously gay kid. I once had a family friend tell me that she knew that I was gay when I was four. I was shocked when I told my parents about my being gay that they didn't think I was.  Ignorance and blindness are bliss, I guess.

I told Tim a few days before my 16th birthday.  I don't remember the conversation, but I do remember the date. Oct 11, 1992. What I didn't know is that Oct 11 was National Coming Out Day.

After that day, I came out to more and more people. To my classmates. To my teachers, one of whom never told me that she was a lesbian (at least not until I graduated) but said and did things that made me feel like I could talk to her.  I always appreciated that from her.

I remember telling one girl in my class, and she said to me, "I can't believe you admit it." 

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean that it's not easy to admit being gay," she said. It was the early 1990s. I was living in rural Nova Scotia. The guys I grew up with played hockey and drank. Our parents worked in fishing or logging. The village I grew up in is home to North America's largest wooden church -- not exactly a beacon of openness around sexual variations. My friend applauded me for coming out.  When I told the rest of my classmates, they soon began to rally around me if and when anybody ever said anything mean about me.

I remember being at a party a year or so later, when the brother of one of my friends said something derogatory about me. My friend bolted upright and berated her brother in front of everyone at this party. She didn't talk to him for a couple days. I was moved. I hadn't expected anyone to defend me, just for being open and honest about who I was.

Coming out made me stronger. It made me realize that honesty to one's self is more important than anything else. I had denied being gay as long as I had known what it was. But I couldn't deny myself.  

So thank you to the people who listened. Thank you to the people who defended me. Thank you to the people who helped me forge a path to be where I am now. Out and proud.

 

Although Pride in Halifax was just a few months ago, the people who bring it to you are already working on getting organized for next year.

Halifax Pride's annual general meeting will take place this Thursday, Oct 11, at the Halifax North Public Library, on Gottingen Street. The meeting begins at 6:30pm, with registration starting at 5:45pm. For more information, check out the Facebook event page. 

PrideHealth is once again trying to find new ways to reach out to Halifax's rainbow community. Tonight at Menz Bar, along with hostess Rouge Fatale, prideHealth is putting on a game-show-style quiz night. Apparently, this time they're focusing on men's health, with prizes, food and more. Contact Anita Keeping at 902-220-0643 or anita.keeping@cdha.nshealth.ca for more info. 

On the Popping Culture tip, Perfume Genius, the pornstar-loving video maven, has released a new video. This one feels like an homage to lot lizards, the sex workers who work at truck stops. Check it out.

There were a lot of cheers at the Youth Project last week.

The organization received $1,000 from an employee at Telus, who is a big fan. The donation was matched by Telus as part of a Celebration of Giving event put on by Telus on Sept 27.

The Youth Project's Leighann Wichman picking up the cheque

The employee, Tim Richards, wanted to give a little something to the Youth Project “because it provides support and services to LGBTTQ youth in the province. I was happy to be able to have my employer match my donation to provide double the amount.” Richards, who grew up outside of the city in Sheet Harbour, wished that he had been able to access programs like the Youth Project when he was younger. “The work being done by the Youth Project is helping to make a better world by addressing phobias, bullying and promoting equality. It’s important work and I am proud to help out a little.”

Sheena Jamieson, the coordinator of support services at the Youth Project, told Down East that donations -- any donation -- help out. “A donation like this means we get to continue to do the great work that we do – supporting youth through their challenges and victories, hosting education workshops on homophobia and bullying, fostering leadership skills in youth who don’t always get the opportunity to be leaders, providing resources and information, running our food bank, and many more things we do in the run of a day.”

Just goes to show that every little bit helps.

 

Graham Kolbeins, the blogger and filmmaker from Future Shipwreck and Thrash Lab fame, has waved his magic fairy wand once more and come up with a new video series and a new project.

Entitled Rad Queers, the project is a way for Kolbeins to combine his favourite things: queers and storytelling. "There are a lot of amazing queer people out there, and I wanted to use 'Rad Queers' as a sort of spotlight for them," he says via email. "I also just love meeting new people and getting to know their stories, and making documentaries is a great excuse to do that."

Kolbeins jokes that his spirit guides for Rad Queers are RuPaul and Ira Glass. "I'd been mulling over Rad Queers in the back of my mind for a while. I wanted to make something that explores the lives of queer people leading fiercely individual lives and doing good things."  

When Kolbeins was introduced to the Los Angeles group the Payasos, he knew he had found what and who he was looking for. Payasos are a group of gay Latino men who -- through sexy and imaginative events, as well as a little bit of clown makeup -- create a space that Kolbeins says "make the world a better place for future generations."

"I met with Leo (the founder of the Payasos) to see if he'd be interested in the documentary and he was absolutely gracious and inviting," he says. "I shot some preliminary footage with the group and presented it to a production company I'd been working with to see if they'd be interested in doing a single-day shoot with the group. The company was a little terrified of the subject matter, so I decided to film it myself without a crew or budget. It actually worked out great that way! Instead of rushing it into a single day, I hung out with the Payasos over several months and attended a wide variety of their events. I ended up getting a much more intimate and multi-faceted perspective on the group than if I'd come in with eight crew members and a van full of equipment."

When asked what he likes about the Payasos, Kolbeins is enthusiastic in describing the sheer amount of fun that he was able to view and experience during filming. "When you're in clown face, it's kind of hard to have a bad time! Random strangers on the street get excited to see you. I had my makeup done a couple of times and it was almost jarring how different people's reactions are towards you . . . it's a simple gesture that makes you feel almost like a superhero, and encourages communion with those around you."